On Reading Promiscuously

A path to understanding and empathy

This week’s post comes to you from the Oregon Coast. We are staying in Tierra Del Mar at the family cabin of some friends, and it is tucked along the coast in such a way that it’s delightfully off-grid. I’ll take a quick trip to the coffee shop in Pacific City in the morning to send out this newsletter as there is no television, internet, or cell service here. Joyfully, not one of my family members can off-handedly glance at their phone. I’m up before the others to work a bit on the computer, but otherwise, it’s just the beach, one another, and of course, books.

Books and reading are a family way and coming to the Oregon Coast means driving through Portland. And driving through Portland means a stop at one of our favorite places on earth: Powells Bookstore. If you are from the Northwest, you’ve likely heard of or visited Powells. But for those who haven’t ventured to this part of the country, Powells has the claim of being the largest independent bookstore in the world. It’s an entire city block of creaky wood floors, myriad nooks and crannies, and of course, floor-to-ceiling books, used and new all shelved together in brazen equality. To really seal the experience, an onsite coffee shop means the deep, rich scent of a dark roast wafts throughout the building. The combined scent of brewed coffee and aged books is intoxicating. Oh, my heavens. Someone take me back.

Our family’s collective pile of purchases started my thoughts about this post. As you will see, it’s a diverse stack of titles. But I personally didn’t always read as diversely as I do now. As a Christian, I felt limited as to what was deemed appropriate. Before I started following Jesus at the age of 28, I read widely, but afterward, I spent many years reading mostly Christian nonfiction, classics, and children’s literature with my kids. This wasn’t necessarily negative. I had much to learn about theology, prayer, spiritual disciplines, and heroes of the faith. There were many essential classics I hadn’t read, and children’s literature has always been a love, being the impetus for my own passion for reading.

But several years back, I read Karen Swallow Prior’s On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Books. Prior is a Christian author and professor of literature and On Reading Well is a memoir that explores certain titles that greatly influenced her spiritual formation. In one of the introductory chapters, Swallow Prior suggests that we should read promiscuously. Apparently, the idea originally stems from John Milton, and in a nutshell, advocates for reading widely as a means of forming virtue as we digest and discern between good and evil in the pages of literature. You can find an excellent expansion of the idea by Professor Swallow Prior at The Gospel Coalition, or of course, just read the book! While I was certain Prior was not suggesting I run out and buy a copy of Fifty Shades of Gray, I still found this idea slightly scandalous when I first read it. But as I read the remainder of her book and thought much about it, I changed courses as a reader. And both my reading life and my soul have deepened consequently.

Christians tend to isolate among themselves. We just do. It’s vital, of course, that we have fellowship with one another and form meaningful and intimate connections with others in the church. We are called to it, and we need it. But we are also called to Go, therefore into the world and live among those who don’t know Jesus. We are to be salt and light, to be love and hope.

But I fear we lose touch with the world around us when we lose touch with worldviews and lifestyles, mindsets, and lived experiences that are so very different from our own. Beyond forming virtue, I believe reading promiscuously helps us to do this thoughtfully and intentionally. We enter narratives outside the Christian experience in a way that gives us time to process and digest, to analyze and consider, without the initial need to react, respond, or interact. Reading promiscuously leads me to stories that let me put my fingers on the pulse of the culture in an empathetic way. It takes me out of a self-imposed box. It stirs up a desire to love the world as Christ does, who sees the individual lives of every human being in all their beauty and brokenness and loves them anyway. Christ confronts it all, doesn’t He? Shouldn’t we?

Around the same time that I read Karen Swallow Prior’s book, I also discovered Tim Keller. One of the things I loved about the late Tim Keller was his vast knowledge and learnedness. His sermons were deeply theological and left me wanting to know more of Jesus, but they were also intellectually satiating. You knew when you listened to Tim Keller, that he was a lifelong pursuer of learning. And he seemed as comfortable quoting a New York Times article, or an atheist philosopher as he did a respected theologian. He was a man who was not afraid of engaging with the world around him. He read widely and I believe his sermons and his impact on New York City was because of this willingness. His example was another encouragement toward this more expansive reading life. We lost a tremendous treasure earlier this year when Tim went home to be with the Lord.

Lastly, I want to reference a recent conversation I had with one of my professors at school. As we chatted along the lines of this post, my professor, who has undergraduate and graduate degrees in English Literature, mentioned how ultimately, narratives that do not align with a Christian worldview lead us back to Christ. When we see the world’s attempt to reconcile brokenness in the world, when we see darkness overcome and recognize the absence of Christ’s light in a narrative, we acknowledge the beauty and need for it all the more. Oddly, the absence of God in a story actually points us more toward Him. I have found this to be true as I have embraced promiscuous reading.

So, I guess I’d like to leave my readers with four humble suggestions: First, find a copy of On Reading Well, and chew on Karen Swallow Prior’s words. Second, listen to Tim Keller's sermons. Third, adopt the idea of promiscuous reading. And lastly, by all means, find your way to Powells Bookstore.